YEAR: 2003

SEASON: Summer

STATE: Florida

COUNTY: Clay County

LOCATION DETAILS: N/A.

NEAREST TOWN: Middleburg.

NEAREST ROAD: Appaloosa RD, Bronco RD.

OBSERVED: A couple of years ago, my best friend at the time and I were just hiking through the woods like we typically did back then. We weren't making a lot of noise, but we were joking around as usual and laughing a little bit, and not really paying attention to our surroundings. We were originally planning on visiting a spot where several large, thick blue berry bushes grew to pick some of the berries, until we rounded a corner to the right in the trail.

Approximately forty or fifty yards away, I noticed a loomering figure. It was tall, black, and had thick fur that appeared to be semi-long and coarse. It wasn't facing us and due to the height of the bushes and palmettos, a lower half the body wasn't visible to our eyes. My guess at it's height is somewhere between six and seven feet tall at the top of its head.

The creature was moving away from us and though I don't recollect any noise ( I'm assuming I was far too frightening to remember it, because only seconds after seeing it, we ran ), but my best friend, who was standing directly at my side, claims she heard it moving through the foliage and creating quite a bit of sound such as breaking twigs, branches, and leaves rustling.

We were genuinely freaked out and ran from the area as soon as we managed to regain ourselves and our bearings, which couldn't have been any longer than thirty seconds or so.

ALSO NOTICED: N/A.

OTHER WITNESSES: There was one other witness. She was standing beside me at the time of the sighting and saw just as much as I did before we both took off running down the trail opposite of the incident.

OTHER STORIES: In Clay County, yes. Apparently, from what I've learned in school and on this website, there have been several sightings and incidents in nearby regions of Clay County.

In Old Jennings forest, which was where we were, no.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: It was a clear day, at around 12:00 or 1:00 PM. It wasn't very late. The skies were bright with sunlight, and the area we experienced the sighting did not have a thick canopy at all.

ENVIRONMENT: It's called Old Jennings Forest. At the exact location of the sighting, it's mostly pine forest with an abundance of palmetto bushes. It breaks off however a couple hundred yards on the right and left to oaks and cedars and then back to pines. A tiny tributary from Black Creek, known as Indian Fjords, is also located nearby.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator David Wright:

This young lady told me about this experience before she reported it, and I suggested that she report it on BFRO.net, which she did. I interviewed both her, and the other witness, separately and independently.

The second witness was interviewed without knowledge of the interview of the first. The reporting witness accompanied me to the site, which is in Jennings State Forest, in NE Florida. We measured the distance from where they were standing to where the creature was, and it was approximately 100 feet. We also measure the height of the creature on a tree that would have been behind it, and the height was approximately 8'. The creature was facing away from the witnesses, and neither described a visible neck or ears, or vocalizations.

The second witness, upon interview, brought up thrashing sounds in the brush that attracted their attention, and the broad, thick shoulders, but that was not remembered by the first witness. The creature was facing away from them, and upon realization of what they were seeing, thinking it was a bear, they turned and fled.

The first witness, upon becoming recently informed about the bigfoot phenomenon, discerned that the creature was not a bear, because of its height, and absence of visible ears, and decided to report it. Both girls had vivid (though slightly different) memories of the overall incident, but both were certain of their descriptions of the animal.

This investigator has recently photographed apparent tree formations within several hundred meters from the location of this sighting.

About BFRO Investigator David Wright:

• Certified Florida Master Naturalist (U. of Florida)
  
• Visual Tracker, Level 1
• Teaches Biology, A.P. Biology, Ecology, and Environmental Science at a rural high school SE of Jacksonville
• See local TV interview with D. Wright
• Participated in the 2007 Private Florida Expedition [Click the video link on that page.], the 2007 South Carolina Expedition, the 2008 South Florida Expedition and assisted with the organization of the 2008 North Florida Expedition. Assisted with the organization of the 2009 Central Florida Expedition.